More than 8,000 photographs from a private collection have been offered to the National Heritage Board (NHB) for digitisation.

The collection includes rare 1980s photographs of places long gone including Pulau Tekong's Malay kampungs, Lorong Fatimah in Woodlands and, Kampung Kayu and Kampung Arang near the mouth of Geylang River.

The contribution by Mr Quek Tiong Swee, 67, a retired civil servant, will help plug the gap in information on the settlements in rural areas of Singapore and other offshore islands, said the NHB.

"We hope that more individuals will follow Mr Quek's example so that we can grow our repository of heritage materials and make them available to the general public," said group director of policy at the board, Mr Alvin Tan.